a very merry christmas

i hope everyone had a good christmas.  i liked mine, i wish it hadn't been so short.  i got some fantatstic new camping gear and a hilarious cd based on edward gorey stuff.  (the gorey end, by the tiger lillies.)  also, an elephant tea infuser.  anyway, it was nice to see relatives and not be around work which is even more stressful than it has ever been which i will write more about later.  right now i'm trying to catch up on uploading my photos, i'm still only as far as tennessee in may.  if anyone wants to upgrade my flickr account to pro as a late christmas present, i will not object!

so dramatic!

so i have had a pretty rough couple of weeks at work.  basically, offages have totally been kicking my ass even if things tend to work out for me in the end.  (minus the first one, it was only for ten dollars though so it wasn't too bad, but an offage is still an offage.)  but on friday we had a problem with our cash dispenser which caused me to be over by $500 on saturday.  talk about stress, i left work crying because i thought i was going to get fired.  but things are working now so we figured it all out and it fixed itself.  i think i must have just done some math wrong and bought the wrong amounts from the vault friday night.

so in summary: i want to pull my hair out a lot, but after things working themselves out today and talking to my manager a little bit, i do feel better about things and i'm hoping it starts to look up soon.  and, i get tomorrow off!  i love days off!

i forgot to mention that i bought a plane ticket to new york in january.  excitement abounds!

here's to hoping that next week at work doesn't suck quite as bad as this last week...

the christmas season approaches

and i'm not yet feeling it.  i think i am just too tired, this week has pretty much sucked on the work front of things.  and tomorrow i only have a half day (since it is saturday) but then will be babysitting for about eight hours.

nice on the wallet, but not on the body!

at least our tree is up and some other decorations.  maybe that and some sufjan stevens will get me in the christmas spirit.

'tis the season

it's rather unfortunate that the only one of these that turned out is the one that happens to be at the end with the tags on it.  but i think the ice accurately protrays what it feels like here now, though.

also: in an unrelated matter, apparantly bush is considering lifting a ban on oil drilling in bristol bay.  it just makes me sick that he's like this, when we could be making an effort to reduce our dependency on oil, period.  (bristol bay is where i was this summer.)  i understand the other side of it, that it would create jobs, but there has to be another way.  *sigh*

warning: contains actual photos!

i know, it's been a while since i've posted any new photos.

thanksgiving was good, now i'm tired.  we have christmas lights on the outside of our house, and my little tree is up.  the cat has already knocked it over twice.

the christmas season is here!

i had my first day of shadowing today. i guess it'll be pretty easy after awhile, but it's not fair that the girls can do a transaction in about two seconds whereas it'll take me about two minutes.

practice, practice, practice.

and kate is the most awesome person at random packages in the mail with things that i totally love. sorry everyone else, but you fail miserably next to anyone who sends me edward gorey things in the mail. and music that i want.

i swear to you, my brain has turned to mush and no matter how tired i am at 6pm by midnight I AM WIDE AWAKE.

i hope that i do not start a caffeine addiction because i sure have been drinking a lot of coffee this week.

what do you mean i have to balance?!?

after two days of training, now i see why we take a week to do this.  i am already apprehensive about this job after spending almost the entire first day discussing what to do in case of a robbery and all about fraud.

it's just overwhelming, really.

good news! and not for people who like bad news.

starting monday i will be a teller at a local credit union.  yay for jobs!

chinese mullet man

my fortune: take advantage of your great imagination.  it will serve you well!

and, of course, one must add IN BED!  heh!

this blog uses words!

although those words may not necessarily make a cohesive post.

i had an interview on tuesday, and am scheduled for a second interview tomorrow morning.  this means that everyone needs to keep their fingers crossed because not only do i need just any job, i would prefer it to be this particular job (it's at a credit union).  i'm sure i'll be fine, i just have to decide what i'm going to wear and remember not to say "um" ten thousand times.

i had been thinking that it would be fun to participate in nanowrimo, partially since it appeared i might not have much else to do, and partially because i haven't written anything since high school, but then i remembered why.  i don't have any ideas.  about anything.  and i was completely unprepared and suddenly it's already november.  it's one of those things that might be fun to do sometime (like the yearly blogathon that i keep missing), but not this year.

i have been super spacey in general...when you don't have a schedule to keep to, it kind of messes with your sense of time.  i keep meaning to do things, and then i realize a month later i haven't done it yet.  but upon further reflection, i have a vague sense of that being a problem with me even when i do have a schedule to follow.  so maybe i just have time management issues?

anyway, i do know one thing.  it's now 12:40 and it's time for lunch.  so i'm going to go upstairs and make a sandwhich or something and also have some of my sea salt and vinegar chips (my mouth is watering).  and then take things from there.

at least this year it wasn't "purple reign"

first off, i think i have now heard this song or a remix of it 100 times.  and i'm pretty sure that isn't an exaggeration either.  and it won't leave my head.

friday i went to cornell even though it felt like i had just left there, and i got to hang out with my sister and go to udai's birthday party.  i was planning on going to the bars, but right after three 30-packs were purchased, there was the possibility of police so everyone under 21 left and so there was a lot of beer to drink.  and i didn't make it.  in fact, the next morning the birthday boy and pals decided to drink the last 30-pack (before lunch) and that's when i heard began hearing that song that will never go away.  there was more drinking, going to the dance which sucked, and watching of the life aquatic.  sunday morning i went to brunch with the rhozes and saw sovady and amber, checked out the moved rock, and drove back here.  then on monday i slept until noon and spent most of my afternoon helping my dad cut wood.  or rather, i carried it.  i carried a tree and a half, people!  my arms hurt and i have bruises all over.

and then yesterday i participated in a survey about things like drugs and alcohol and got paid $30 for it.  and i get to represent 3,000 people.

and now i am bored as usual.

john corbett photos

the culmination of my weekend, which also included a wedding, a bridal show, and a visit with relatives.  i didn't really get any great photos, but i will always have fond memories of a drunken john corbett in c&d's dancing away.

finally, some color!

yesterday the sun was out, shining through the leaves and made them translucent.  pretty fantastic, really.

the non-colors of fall

i took a few more photos today since the leaves are now falling, but the sky was so overcast they didn't quite turn out how i would have liked them to.  even then, the colors aren't quite so brilliant as they usually are; something to do with the weather, i guess. 

so on and so forth, the usual, blah blah blah.

a quarter of a century

so on sunday i turned 25.  it doesn't feel any different from 24, which doesn't feel much different from 23, and so on.  we didn't really do much, just invited a few people over for sunday dinner, and after they left i opened my presents.  i got some pretty sweet all stars from stephanie, and neko case's fox confessor brings the flood.  laura ordered cold comfort farm for me, which arrived yesterday and i promptly watched. 

the only other thing is that i am helping out at church to reorganize the library.  i got a decent chunk done yesterday, but there's still a lot to do.  i don't think many books have been donated for awhile; i found a book called today's teen-agers from 1966.  heh.  a lot of the children's books are from the 50s and 60s too, but deb is hoping to get people to donate some new stuff.  it's kind of a fun project, i get to use a typewriter, play with books, and organize things.  i'm pretty good at the first two things and sort of good at that last one.  in addition, i get to get away from the house and my dad who will NOT SHUT UP about the fact that i'm still unemployed.  i am?  i hadn't noticed!

it's not like it makes me feel like the most boring person on the planet or anything.  and i certainly enjoy watching my savings account dwindle to almost nothing in no time at all. 

another useless post

yesterday was such a crap day, it was cold and rainy so all i wanted to do was stay in bed with some hot chocolate while watching cold comfort farm.  what a bust, first i had to go to church, then sunday school (where i am sure to open my mouth and make myself look like an idiot VERY VERY SOON) and then i don't even own that movie so it's not like i could watch it anyway.  IN ADDITION the library does not even have it in book form which is shameful, i say!  shameful!

fall photos

i know that technically it's not fall yet*, but the weather certainly feels as if it's headed that way.  after a string of dreary days, which did not help my mood any, it's very nice and sunny out today.  i went outside to take a photo of one thing, and i ended up taking a lot of really great photos, so i started a new fall album.  i feel better about taking pictures right now, because these are something sort of new.  i think part of my disappointment has been with the fact that i took so many photos on my trip, and very few turned out how i wanted them to.  but that's okay, i'll just have to get over it.

i've had some ideas for things to try, and i should do it.  i think doing something else for awhile will give me a better perspective or maybe lead me in a direction i like better than where i was going.  yesterday i was reading a national geographic from the late 90s, and the author/photographer had given himself a project: for 90 days, from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice, he would take only one frame a day.  no backups, in case of mistakes.  they showed the photos, and they were amazing because he really had to consider what he was going to do with that one frame.  of course, he lived in the north woods area so he had an advantage scenery-wise, but i think the concept is a brilliant idea.  don't know if i'll try it, but whatever.

today mom and i took book for her yearly shots.  she freaked the fuck out, but when i opened up the box once we got home, she just hopped out and was all cool and collected.  it was pretty funny, but i don't think i envy stephanie for when it's time to move her somewhere.

*but i guess it will be soon, since my birthday is in about a week and a half, hint hint!

mrow.

this cat is one crazy feline.

filler

last night:

(i keep taking pictures, but it doesn't feel like it means anything anymore.)

things i have been up to

if only i was getting paid for this.

visiting family

visiting friends

helping with a massive garage sale and an open house

and helping move stephanie back to cornell.

aiee!

alaska: the "fish processing" edition

one of my favorite things about working in a cannery was learning the details of the processing portion of the fishing industry.  i've said it before and i'll say it again, we're so detatched about where our food comes from, and i was unhealthily fascinated with watching everything.

to begin with, the fish came to us on tenders.

here you can see a tender that is at the dock, relieving it's holds of fish.  the big silver machine is a giant vacuum that sucks them up.  (you can see the fish in brine in the middle there.)  it's pretty fun watching the fish get sucked up, you can see them in the tubes going off to the bins.

there are seven bins, the first six hold 90,000 pounds of salmon, the last one 70,000.  that's a lot of fish when they are all full.  (that's a lot of fish even if they aren't all full.)

from there, the fish go on a conveyer belt to get butchered, and in the cannery sliced, patched (making sure the cans weigh the right amount and look pretty) lidded, and they go to retort where they are cooked.  from there, they go to the warehouse, and then off to city dock to be shipped.

in the freezer, we also had a butcher line.  first, they go through the chink (so-called because it was once advertised as being able to "replace a hundred chinamen") where there heads are removed, then the tails.

that part in the middle is the part that cuts the heads off.  the blade was this huge thing that every night dave, the machinist, would take off and sharpen by hand.  it was a scary looking bit, but it was kind of fun to watch it go around and see the heads come off.  the bit on the far left is where the tails and fins would get cut off.  i never fully understood the mechanics behind it, but that's what it did.  (i think it's also the thing that gave us the most trouble; we spent a lot of time waiting around for it to get fixed.)

then the fish went into the ryan to get eviscerated!

these things sliced the belly open and sent all the insides somewhere else to be sorted.  the roe (eggs) is worth more than the fish itself.  on the upper left, you can see the slime line.  that's where the final cleaning was done, to make sure that there wasn't anything undesirable left inside. 

(the slime line)

and then they came to me.

this is what i stared at every day for about a month.  i counted the scoops of ice that went in, weighed the pre-fish tote weight and the final weight, and figured out what the net was.  i printed out labels and recorded everything.  i was the queen of the scale.  i was also lucky to get a dry job.

and that's basically it!  a tote like this, made out of cardboard, would get flown to one of two locations.  since these are tail off, they were probably going to kenai where they filleted them.  tail on would be a cannery in canada.  we also butchered salmon for our own fillet line, but for that we used blue plastic totes.  and it didn't have to be as precise since no planes depended on me being underneath a certain weight. 

and so that is a very basic version of what salmon go through in a cannery.  or at least, the freezer portion of it!

it can't be only monday...can it?

it was nice to see my friends this weekend, and i'm glad that my hair no longer feels like someone glued dried grass to the ends, but HOLY COW.

i'm tired.

and, today, my dad was in a minor bicycling accident and broke his collarbone.  and this weekend we have a giant garage sale, an open house, and on monday we move stephanie back to cornell.  and keep in mind my dad can't lift anything, which means even MORE fun things i get to do!  WHOOEE!

vacay!

flying to anchorage.  or king salmon. 

tomorrow morning i am going to ames with my family to visit family.  on saturday, i am going to april's wedding, followed by what will most likely be spending the rest of the weekend in iowa city, wishing that i still lived there with all of my friends, but not missing working at target.

i am distracted--stephanie & friends are watching labrynith and david bowie's pants are so tight i can't help but look.  it's sad that this will probably always be the only thing i ever remember from this movie.

alaska II

so where did i leave off?  i think it was when we arrived in naknek.  so, we arrived later in the day that first day and didn't do much exploring past ags and the beach.  the next morning we had orientation, which consisted of a powerpoint presentation of people we needed to know and things not to do, and this fabulous "germbusters" video.  it was completely in mime since it's supposed to be for people with many different linguistic backgrounds, but the premise was that everytime someone did something that you shouldn't do because it would get the fish germy, there was this radioactive neon glow surrounding that object to show you should not do it.  things like wiping your nose on your hand.  which is highly ironic because i spent the next three weeks wiping my nose all over my shirt.  (probably how i got the cold to my eye, giving myself pink eye.  i know, i'm fabulous.)

after that, we did all the usual stuff like tax forms and filling out emergency contacts, and were told there wasn't any work for us that day.  so melody and i ended up walking down to naknek to look around and make phone calls from the fisherman's bar--which has this totally awesome phone booth.  we actually did a lot of that through the 22nd.  napping, reading (thank goodness the local library had a free book shelf with things like margaret atwood, m.m. kaye and p.d. james on it), journaling, and writing postcards.  i think we went into naknek almost every day for one reason or another just because we didn't have much else to do besides eat a lot of donuts and drink a lot of pochas.  (poor man's mocha--hot chocolate and bad coffee.)  i also learned this really awesome card game from dean called benny, which is probably the only card game i will ever play.  if you are my friend, you will be most likely unfortunate enough to be forced to play it with me at some point in the near future.

we also had some other adventures, such as walking on the beach towards the bay, melody and i avoiding "our eskimo friend" as i took to calling him, and playing more benny.  oh, i totally got hit on in fisherman's one afternoon while i was waiting for mel to finish a phone call by a couple of fisherman.  they were both pretty harmless, but it was so funny because they were drunk (as fisherman are often to be found). 

i also have a haiku i wrote:
fish fish fish fish fish
fish fish fish fish fish fish fish
fish fish fish salmon.

i know, totally the most awesome thing ever.
sorry this isn't entirely cohesive; i have my journal out, but i'm just sort of skipping around in it.  next installment: we begin to work, i contract the cold from hell, and i get a tour of the cannery!  hooray!

BONUS: "who needs a shower when you have wet wipes?" (colleen)  also: "if you want to see iowa, go to the produce aisle." (vikas)

chronologically--how genius! an installment in the alaska adventures.

so i guess the most obvious (except to me) way to begin telling about my adventures in alaska is at the beginning.  where is the beginning?  drinking cheap wine with friends.  but we'll skip that part to the part where i actually go somewhere.

so we left on the 14th of june in rain, and began our drive to seattle.  it was a very long drive, with very little showering and lots of being cramped up in a small car.  but we got to see a lot of fabulous country along I-90, and we didn't kill each other, which was always a plus.

blah blah blah, stuff stuff stuff.

so anyway, we stay in tacoma with melody's family, who have an amazing view of ranier from their deck, and the next day we go to the airport.  apparantly a million people are trying to fly alaska airlines out of seatac that day, because we had to wait in line forever.  we tried to do the self-check, but there was something wrong with our tickets that way and couldn't.  so we waited...and waited...and managed to not miss our flight.

then we flew, which is not usually very memorable, and got to anchorage after seeing lots of mountains from the plane.  bought about 20 postcards and then flew on a little prop plane to king salmon with some other people going to work at ags.  when we landed, discovered that the mosquitos were trying to kill us and that there really aren't any mountains that you can see from that area.  sadness!

rode on a bus to naknek, where the driver kept saying how everyone was thinking it was going to be a really good season based on the cotton plants--ha!  what a joke that turned out to be.  anyway, picked out our bunk, hung out, and had our first ags meal.  that was the beginning of a week of doing nothing but hanging around naknek.  which will make a great installment two!

photographs i happened to take in alaska. so there!

the town of naknek, alaska.  they have fishtival.  no joke.

on the beach.

some more beach, at low tide.

sunset over denali, going back to anchorage.

the best thing after a 60 hour train ride is most defintely a shower.  wow.  i never knew i could look so scuzzy.

so i am back in iowa, the land of humidity and corn.  i missed the corn, but not the humidity.  it's so weird, especially since i am back in ottumwa and not iowa city, it's kind of a "wtf" moment really.

i have a lot to talk about, still, but at the same time i don't know where to begin.  so i guess if anyone has any questions, that's someplace to start.  i do promise to get to work on my photos, but as i have over 500 of them AND i have to go through everything i own for a garage sale, find some work and figure out what i'm going to be doing next, i do have a lot on my plate at the moment so it'll be a little bit of slow going at first.

yep.  and it's been almost two months since i've been into a target.  three cheers for that!

it's too darn hot

i bet you all forgot about me! but i am back now, suffering in the million degree heat with 900% humidity in seattle, waiting for the last three days for melody and lindsey to get back from alaska. (they should be getting back tomorrow morning, which makes me so happy because i'm bored as hell in this city even though i KNOW there is a lot i could be doing, i don't care.)

i would have written earlier, but i was having payment issues, since i'm kind of an idiot sometimes and forgot to change my billing address, then typepad was freaking out on me, but it's all fixed now.

so...alaska! i did not want to leave. actually on wednesday when i saw i was on the list i pretty much spent all morning and afternoon bawling because i wasn't ready to quit working and come back. it's beautiful there, and it's this bizzarre little community. in a way it's a lot like cornell: it's a mixture of pledging and doing anything on the block plan.

i also didn't mind being isolated from all these things going on in the rest of the world, it was kind of a shock hearing about them.

mostly i just enjoyed being with all of the people that i met. i already really miss most of them, even though lindsey, melody and chris and i are roadtripping it to california in a few days. i don't know when i will get to see some of the others again, if ever. unless, of course, i go back next year...

i am seriously considering going back to work dutch harbor, whenever that season is. that is information i need to research.

i want to say thanks to everyone who sent me mail--everyone mainly being my family, but with fabulousness from laura, kate, bridgett and merrilee as well. it mostly showed up right before i left (as in the day i left) but it cheered me up. as in, i quit crying my eyes out, lol!

some photos, since i'm gone.

clouds, 16 may 4:14 pm, cornell college.

a land-formation inspired pot of stephanie's.

a brief appearance!

hello friends!  i am in alaska!  hooray!  i love alaska.  let me repeat, I LOVE ALASKA.  it's beautiful and the sun is ALWAYS UP.  hah.  i have to be quick because i only get fifteen minutes, but my job is pretty easy really.  i am the "tally girl".  i wrote to laura about it, so maybe she can tell you since i am in a hurry. the worst part of it is that i am in the freezer, so even with all of my clothes on it's pretty chilly still.  (that's including two pairs of wool socks.)  i have taken a million rolls of film and am desperate for someone to send me some more because it's not cheap here.  the same goes for body wash.  for the love of god if you want me to be clean and not smelly, mail me some body wash!

or just any regular old mail would be nice, i would appreciate even just a postcard with nothing on it if you don't feel like writing anything. 

i haven't been doing much other than reading, photographing and a little bit of work, but it will pick up very soon and i will probably wish that i was back doing those other things.  but that's okay, because work = money and we all like to have a little bit of that.

also, i know laura won't like it, but since today is laura's birthday everyone should sing to her.  see, i got on special today JUST BECAUSE IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY.  even though you never answer your phone when i call you, i still love you.

i would post a photo, but the computer is too slow to get one off of snapfish.  so you will have to anxiously await them for some other time.

bye!

Live from Alaska

Ha, speak of the devil--today I got a letter from Sarah. I can't replicate the Pink Panther stationery, but here is an excerpt:

"So here I am in Alaska! There's no work for us yet; we went to the dock to try to find something today, but nothing. But there's fish in Egigik, and tonight the boats are going to start to go out so there should be fish tomorrow. Which will be nice since Naknek isn't very big and I've already seen pretty much all of it the last two days. It's a really small town, but has two liquor stores, three bars, two B&Bs and a hotel. Plus a couple of churches, a school and a swimming pool. Where I am, AGS, are a lot of similar looking green buildings. And a dock with the cannery, warehouse and freezer, and numerous boats which they have started putting out on the water. The one right outside my and Melody's window is called Aquarius. Oh, and there is also a beach where people regularly have bonfires and drink.

"Our bunkhouse is pretty much what a bunkhouse sounds like. Melody and I have tried to pretty our room up with some rocks and sticks in the window, rocks as bookends, and a styrofoam cup as a penholder. The walls are just drywall with large chunks of paint missing, so on my wall I've put up postcards from our trip, but it still looks pretty pathetic and so I am hoping for some mail that I can hang up to cover up some of those spots.[...] I also wish I had brought some [photos] of you all so that I could put them up.

"It's so weird that I am finally in Alaska. I've wanted to come here for years. Despite the light tricking me so I can stay up until 11 thinking it's afternoon, I really like it here. Even though I haven't done any work yet, I can kind of see why people come back season after season."

The moral of the story is, send Sarah some mail!

An inadequate substitute.

Hello. This is Laura posting in Sarah's absence. Since she's been gone (ha! Kelly Clarkson.) I've had three postcards from her road trip, one payphone call from the Anchorage airport, and ... silence. I think she may have left me one other voicemail but it was so jumbled and I couldn't hear clearly enough to tell if it was her.

HOW many more weeks till she comes back??

sara, megan, and sarah.

sara and megan at a gabe's dance party.

megan and sarah.

um...should be self-explanatory.   (as in, i put cookies on my eyes.  hey, i was drinking!)

since i am actually writing this on the 12th, i have no idea what's going on when it's posted on the 19th.  i'm not able to see into the future.

as far as seattle!

hello!  what an unexpected post!  i am typing to you from the seattle public library.  it's got some crazy cool architecture and they are so awesome they let non-residents use the internet for a whole hour, instead of 30 minutes like iowa city's public library.  ooh!

so tomorrow we are flying out of here to alaska.  i can't say it's something that i have been thinking about a whole lot, because we have been spending so much time just trying to get this far.  we have been driving what feels like non-stop.  or rather, colleen and vikas have been since they are the only ones who can drive stick.  anyway, so yeah.  we made it as far as mitchell, south dakota the first night and camped in a super windy thunderstorm in a campground that was entirely rv's besides us.  but the people next to us were nice and gave us coffee the next day.  then we drove to columbus, montana and camped at the itch-kep-pe city park.  it was next to the yellowstone river, and while we didn't have much time to spend looking around, it was still very beautiful.  the best camping was last night though when we camped at the riverside state park outside of spokane.  we got in early enough to get a spot, and even though it downpoured while we set up the tent, that was the only rain.  we then went and ate indian food and then came back to hike and look at the swinging bridge and the rapids in the river.  and now we are here in seattle after our last day of driving and the first thing we did was come here, lol!  but we have some last minute shopping to do, and we will probably look around downtown as well before we head to tacoma to stay with some of melody's relatives for the night. 

i can't complain too badly, it's been a little stressful here and there, but i can't say that that is entirely unexpected.  it's hard for erin, melody and i to be cramped in the back, but then we don't have to drive which is equally stressful.  but it's been beautiful and i am sure we are all glad to have this leg of the trip done and to get on to alaska for the "big event" as it were. 

i've taken over four rolls of film already and so i guess i will have to buy more.  (you can always send me some too!  i only have 200 photos or thereabouts i can take on my digital, so i'm trying to conserve that.)  i was going to upload a few that i already took on my digital camera and relocate them to my flash drive and post a few, but my camera cord is in my bag somewhere in the depths of the trunk so i guess that's not going to happen.  you can satisy yourself by looking up photos of the places i've been online and pretend that you can see me in them or something.

maybe there is something else that i could talk about, but i can't think of it.  so i guess that i will grudgingly finish up this post, and begin my internetless-ness for real this time.  eek!

to cheer me up

isn't he the most adorable?  i can't believe he can walk. also, i like how he has like this mullet thing going on.  (which you can't really see in those pictures, but it's totally there.)

my parents came and took all of my stuff away this morning.  i am feeling rather desolate, but i can't even call anyone about how i feel because I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PHONE ANYMORE.  at least i have my ipod, maybe the new pornographers can make me feel better.  i'm considering pitching my tent in my room just to have something there.

i finally have an address for the people who want to send me mail:

Sarah Kellogg - Cannery Worker
C/O Alaska General Seafoods
PO Box 149
Naknek, AK  99633

although i get the impression that it will take awhile for me to receive anything that is sent, so probably don't send anything after the first week in july, just in case i'm gone by the time it arrives.  (you can also send mail to my parents house in ottuwma so i have something when i get back if you'd like.)

um...what else?  since laura is a) my bff and b) the only person whose phone number i have memorized, she has access to my typepad account and may be updating for me if i ever get a chance to call her while i'm gone.  also, i have some other photos that i will probably put so that they post at random dates just for the hell of it. 

i can't believe that i am going to alaska.  i also can't believe all of the preparation that is going into this, all of the things i have needed to do (add mom to my bank account, set up automatic payment on my credit card, buy this, that and the other) and the stuff i still need to do like change my mailing address and maybe get my haircut. 

a day and a half until i leave!

temporarily unemployed.

DSC03141 2
Originally uploaded by lirty.

i have been uploading photos from our trip to tennesee/liz's wedding, but i may run out of bandwidth and will have to finish when i get back in august. unless someone wants to chip in and get me a pro account for flickr, in which case i will be done before wednesday.

so, last night was my last night at target. it's weird to think about it. when i went in, i was excited because who wouldn't be? but then i sort of just got into the routine of things and didn't really think about it at all--it was just like any other day, and tomorrow would be the same. but then we finished at 11, and i was leaving, and it was like "wow, if i don't want to, i never have to come back here again." i'm sure i will visit when i get back to see the few people that will still be working there, but wow.

can i say it again? wow!

which means now i need to finish packing up for my moving and for the trip itself. it's difficult; i have a few things out ready, but i know 100% that i will have to reduce at least a third of what i have and it's not even everything yet. yargh, i know i can do it, but packing is hard!

and i know as soon as the last box is gone and i'm left with an empty room and no car/phone, it's going to hit me what i'm about to do. and that's like a triple "wow".

it draws near!

today will be my last day at target, and in celebration i had almost 100 new friend requests on myspace from people i don't actually know.  (guys and bands.)  actually, the celebration will be saturday night when i hang out at my house and drink stuff.

i'm so glad that i am almost done, ever since i put my notice in we have had at least one crazy person in each day.  at least one.  and the closer it gets, the more there are.

aiee.

even though i'm nervous about this fish canning business, fish aren't jackasses, and they certainly can't talk back at you or yell at you for simply DOING YOUR FUCKING JOB.

bitter much?  me?

the plan, stan

we will be leaving iowa on the 14th to drive to seattle.  get into seattle/tacoma by the 17th, leave seattle for alaska on the 18th.

now, i just have to pack.  very lightly.  not something i am known for doing well.

in two weeks i will be on my way to alaska or nearly on my way.  which means i have two weeks to learn to drive a stick.  any takers on teaching me?

our flight leaves seattle on the 18th.  I'M SO EXCITED!

i put in my notice at work today.  lauren told me not to make janet cry.  she did seem sad that i am leaving, but she was kind of laughing at why i'm leaving.  canning fish.  heh.  i guess nobody really wants me to leave though, and janet said if i change my mind she can always tear up my notice.

so june 9 is my last day.

also, wtf?  it was like mid-march weather, now it's like mid-july weather.  i can't breath for the humidity.

i added photos to the bloom county album.  i finished editing the tennessee ones, but i will put them up later.  it seems like a shame to spend all day inside the library.  plus, i don't have any battery power left in my ipod and people are very noisy here.

(chia-chi doesn't like the paparazzi.)

tennessee

it was fun.

minus the four hours in a traffic jam north of lexington.  i got to see my cousins and other relations and stephanie talked about hill people.  (who we are descended from on my dad's side.)

three-ish weeks until i am finished with target.

a long and rambling story.

notice:  my computer is a piece of crap.  it and my wireless card were in a fight, and the computer won, so i am 100% internetless.  back to the library, it is.  also, now it and photoshop are in a fight, so i only have a few cinco de mayo photos edited.  although, that night is probably best left forgotten.  (which i have already done to most of it.)

how you say?  ten shots of tequila.  yes, that is right.  ten. and that's not all--someone said i also was in a chugging contest.  with guiness and rum.  just the thought of that is enough to turn my stomach.  i have to say though, i must be some kind of legend to do ten shots and not, say, die, but keep drinking for four more hours.  either that or some kind of fucking idiot.  (i'm voting for the latter, personally.  i am in awe of my own stupidity sometiems!)  it was a fun party, otherwise, with lots of fabulous food and an awesome pirate pinata.

(kathy and the pirate pinata.)

anyway, so clearly i spent most of saturday huddled over a bottle of water trying not to puke or fall over.  (and feeling like even more of an idiot because my car ran out of gas in a parking lot.)  but then, we had a nice bloom county night where we made a HUGE and rather eclectic dinner, ate too much, and hung out.  anna left for the summer, so it was sort of a last hurrah for the current bc.  it was fabulous stuff, and i have now made churros twice without burning the house down with a grease fire.  which is always a good thing. 

sunday i spent the day with chia chi doing stuff.  we finally got to watch the first part of the a&e p&p, among other things.  i also finished the book thief (on the recommendation of laura).  it was SUCH A GOOD BOOK.  i kind of wish i hadn't returned it already so that i could re-read it, but i have so many other books to read i guess i will survive.  *sigh*

anyway...i've spent most of my week working as usual.  tuesday night we had ANOTHER tornado warning (the third one in a month and a half), but this time i was at work.  jan was running around, and i could see the sky (which was a freaky shade of blue/gray) and i kinda got freaked out between that and hearing what i thought were tornado sirens (which they were).  but it turns out it was in solon, so we were okay, but we still had to basically shut the store down and have everyone go to the back.  but people are freaking morons and wanted to shop.  we had to keep saying no, you can't.  you can leave if you want, but you can't shop.  we can't check you out anyway since in this kind of event all of the registers are locked.  i like the priorities people have. 

not that i care too much, with each passing day i am more and more having the attitude of "death to target!"  i don't care so much about things like being nice to people and wearing clothes that are entirely clean.  (okay, i don't care so much about those things anyway, as long as i don't smell.)  i'm not the only one either, more and more people are becoming disgruntled with certain other people, and it makes for a lot of angry conversations about specific co-workers.  in fact, i hear on tuesday there is an "i hate target" party somewhere.  i might go.

tomorrow morning i am leaving for my cousin's wedding in tennessee.  i am missing about thirty parties, but after last week i'm okay with that.  all five of us are driving out in the elentra.  it's going to be a REALLY FUN TRIP.  (you can't hear the sarcasm in my voice, but it is MOST DEFINITELY THERE.) 

yeesh.

so i guess i will be back next week, whenever i can make it back to the library.  at least this no internet is good exercise for me.  i've walked more in the last couple of weeks than...since when i last had no internet at my house.